Leviticus 25:32

32 " 'As for the cities of the Levites, [that is], the houses in their property's cities, it shall be {a lasting redemption} for the Levites.

Leviticus 25:32 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:32

Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites
The six cities of refuge, and forty two others; these and the houses in them are excepted from the above law, and only they; not such as they might purchase elsewhere; wherefore it follows,

[and] the houses of the cities of their possession;
which were in cities possessed by them, and which was their possession, and given them as such:

may the Levites redeem at any time;
they were not restrained to a year, as houses in walled towns, but they might redeem them as they pleased or could; and if they did not redeem them within the year, they might redeem them afterwards, even years after, and any time before the year of jubilee; so it is said in the Misnah ^F12 the priests and the Levites sell always, and they redeem always, as it is said, ( Leviticus 25:32 ) ; on which one of the commentators says ^F13 "they sell always", not as the Israelites, who cannot sell less than two years before the jubilee; but the Levites can sell near the jubilee: "and they redeem always"; if they sell houses in walled cities, they are not confirmed at the end of the year, as the houses of Israelites; and if they sell fields, it is not necessary they should remain in the hands of the buyer two years, but they may redeem them immediately if they will: this redemption was peculiar to the Levites; for if an Israelite has an inheritance from his father's mother, a Levite, he might not redeem according to the manner Levites did, but according to Israelites; and so a Levite that inherited from his father's mother, an Israelite, was obliged to redeem as an Israelite and not as a Levite ^F14; for this perpetual redemption respected only houses that were in the cities of the Levites.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.
F13 Bartenora in ib.
F14 Misn. Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.

Leviticus 25:32 In-Context

30 But if it is not redeemed {before a full year has passed}, then the house that [is] {in the walled city} shall belong to the buyer in perpetuity throughout his generations; it shall not go out [of the buyer's hand] in the Jubilee.

31 However, village houses that have no surrounding wall shall be considered {open country}; [there] is redemption for it, and in the Jubilee it shall go out [of the buyer's hand].

32 " 'As for the cities of the Levites, [that is], the houses in their property's cities, it shall be {a lasting redemption} for the Levites.

33 And whatever [anyone] redeems from the Levites then must go out [of the buyer's hand] in the Jubilee, [including] a house's selling {in his city's property}, because the houses in the cities of the Levites [are] their property in the midst of the {Israelites}.

34 But a field of their cities' pastureland must not be sold, because {it is their property for all time}.

Footnotes

• [a] Or "And"
• [b] Hebrew "of"
• [c] Or "a permanent redemption"; literally "redemption of eternity" or "redemption of long duration"